Great Circle Views

Chapter 1: The Beginning

> …as centuries and millennia come and go, man, like a mite on a log in the Mississippi River, slowly drifts in the deep stream of his own evolutionary progress, living out his brief span of life by freely journeying to and fro in his own physical and perceptual world, yet imprisoned there in a narrow cell of space and time. He is unable to rise far enough above the gravity of his own importance to see the fact and course of a far greater journey, and he is unable to see clearly enough through the mesh of his past and his present to perceive the hidden currents that play with destiny.

> … this book itself is…an exploratory journey…an evolutionary journey…intended to be an unfolding exploration into unfolding times—an open-minded exploration into how the final pictures upon the tapestries of all of our destinies are woven with the threads of our past and our present, which are pulled by the needle of our conceptualizations and our willed projections into our futures. This journey is intended to be an adventurous quest for finding ideas and directions; for blazing trails into the territories of dreams, decisions, and destinies; and for learning from opportunities ignored and grasped along the courses of our own lifetime journeys.

Chapter 2: The Great Circle

> “After we have returned to the village, go by the river and pick up a stone that fits easily into your closed hand. With your other hand, scoop up dry sand until you feel the same weight of the stone. See how each grain of sand is a small stone, and how this hand carries a great many of these stones; while the other hand carries only one large stone. Are all these small stones of sand more useful than the one stone? What can you do with a handful of sand?”

> When intelligence, self-esteem, and confidence are healthy, they call forth a balance of assertiveness and receptivity that does not slop over into offensive, defensive, or gullible behavior patterns. And that balance allows us to harmoniously and wisely maintain and communicate our own positions until we have received enough productive input from other positions to either build upon or abandon our own.

Chapter 3: The Great Divide

> I am sitting atop a cresting mountain meadow about eight miles south of California’s Palomar Mountain. As I write, division is everywhere around me, celebrating itself in a kaleidoscopic variety of colors, shades, shapes, sounds, textures, and life forms—all dynamically existing in a natural play of beauty and harmony.

> Everywhere, human individuals and collectives are in countless ways divided from one another. In this sense, at least, man is fully associated with universal Nature; for division is the very crux of Nature—the crucible in which she mixes and manifests all things. Without division there would be no life, no story, no beauty.

Left Brain, Right Brain, “Whole Brain”
> We readily recognize the true need for integration and balance in mechanical systems and organic systems, but we often make the serious mistake of ignoring or forgetting that same vital need in systems that are intangible; such as our own mental systems. Psychiatric wards are rife with individuals who went too far trying to maintain a mental system constructed of less than all of their marbles, or whose mind pounded itself to dysfunction when its load got out of balance in a spin cycle.

Human Conflict—Resistance and Resolution
> Throughout history we humans have continually raped, tortured, maimed, and murdered in all factions of our own species: infants, children, adults, the aged, male and female, healthy and sick. We do these things person-to-person and grand scale in wars. Furthermore, we do this raping and torturing and maiming and murdering rarely for any purpose that could be practically related to needs of real life-and-death biological survival, but to follow the emotions of desire; and worse, to “resolve” the conflicts arising from divided [ideologies].
> I am wondering what went wrong with us. Aside from simplistic scriptural assessments and complex psycho-sociological analyses, what went wrong?

Chapter 4: The Measure of Man

> It is the left brain focus that perceptually divides the physical realm into its recognizable differentia, divides the realm of time and space into increments, divides the realm of energy into rates of vibration, and divides the realm of the mind into opposing and conflicting perceptions. Compared to the deep, intuitive, and abstract focus of traditional Eastern civilizations, Western civilization is decidedly left brain-predominant.

Three Examples of Western Thinking
A Misuse of Cosmetics
> To wisely accent one’s best features or sublimate the worst ones, to creatively experiment with aesthetic possibilities, or to dramatically enhance a persona-choice with cosmetic art, can easily be a wholesome dynamic; but to depend upon a mask for a mating call, or to depend upon a crust for self esteem, is an unwholesome dynamic.
The Psyche as a Taboo
> A strong Western tolerance line—with its resulting label-and-dismiss mechanism—is the line drawn between the bright, conscious, intellectual, logical, rational, concrete, sense-verified, collectively-approved, and materially-stable outer reality; and the dark, subconscious, emotional, illogical, irrational, sense-eluding, collectively-feared, ethereal, and energetically-dynamic inner reality that is the deep and complex realm of the human psyche.
Nature and the Environment
> There are subtle and profound beauties and laws hiding within Nature, and they offer great benefit to anyone who is willing to partake of them. But that partaking requires pause, stillness, and reflection—resting the mind long enough to see what autonomously emerges from the fathoms of a suspended moment. What may emerge are spontaneous intuitions and feelings that can usher the mind to remarkable new perceptions, new truths, and new realities; new dimensions of life experience that are realized to be as golden as any of the great experiences we have gained from galloping through life with the buckboard of our experience drawn by the outgoing will, the basic senses, and the reasoning intellect.

Too Many Measurements

> It is left brain consciousness that divides space and time into measurable increments. If it weren’t for left brain consciousness, we would always Be Here Now (as Ram Dass’ book title describes that state of consciousness which supports the relaxed discovery of right brain treasures). When space and time have been divided into increments, and when a habit is established of perceiving space and time [with that incremental focus], then—in order to deal with that dynamic concept of space and time in one’s reality—the outgoing will must necessarily operate upon two linear tracks: space’s behind-here-ahead, and time’s past-present-future.

Dissociation, Acceleration, and Power
> “Power corrupts," it has often been said, and much corruption comes from fear of losing the position of controlling that power. Power also exhilarates; and aside from the fear of losing the position of control, much of the corruption found in positions of power comes from a psychological addiction to the exhilaration. Speed exhilarates too; and when speed and power are combined, exhilaration is more than doubled.

Chapter 5: Four Corners

> North, south, east, and west. Up, down, forward, and reverse. Winter, summer, spring, and fall. Earth, air, fire, and water. Morning, evening, midnight, and noon. Did you ever notice how our perceptions, conceptions, and experiences of reality are set on a four-cornered foundation? Why in our consciousness do so many important aspects of our reality come in sets of four?

The Archetype of Foundational Security
> …consider the laws of physics that govern the relationship between the integrity of a standing structure and the foundation upon which that structure is built—and let us consider these things by using the evolutionist’s model: When early humans first poked their heads toward the sky by standing up on two feet, they instinctively widened their stance and threw their arms outward whenever their vertical posture tottered dangerously toward the ground. That is the crudest level of conscious recognition of the laws of physics governing foundational security and the integrity of standing structures, but it is the most practical and most ready. And without left brain knowledge about those laws of physics, these low-brow creatures stood and survived to eventually evolve into such as Newton, Einstein, and all of the rest who have advanced science and technology. There is an important point in that . . .

Foundational Security and the Symbolic Square
> In right brain perception, conception, and language, the square can be symbolic of several things. Relevant to the subject we are exploring here, the square is a symbol for our perceptions, conceptions, and experiences of a particular universal archetype; one that we have labeled in English as “security”—security itself.

Measurement-Consciousness in our Minds
> [The] mental habit of division-of-division began a million or more years ago, when we first evolved from a dim awareness of physical existence in general. We evolved from that basic awareness into a conscious awareness of physical world components; such as ground, sky, bodies of water, plants, and animals. Gradually our awareness became more complex and sophisticated and we mentally divided such newly-noticed components into each of their own inherent components. For instance, animals in general were finally noticed to be land animals, flying animals, and swimming animals; then various land animals that walked or hopped or crawled or slithered; and so on.

Measurement-Consciousness and the Symbolic Cross
> When we equally divide one straight line with a second straight line perpendicular to the first, we produce a cross…the cross is a symbol of division-of-division.

Four-cornered Symbols and Ideas in our Minds
> The square…has been mentioned as a symbol resonating with that aspect of archetypal security which is the human mind equating measurement-consciousness with security.

Complexity and Complication
> …there are two relevant rules that I often see manifesting in life—like often seeing the same two bumper stickers over time:
COMPLEXITY IS NOT ALWAYS BORN FROM SOPHISTICATION
SOPHISTICATION OFTEN THREATENS SECURITY

Psychological Squares—Tradition and Dogma
> I believe that, through centuries of progress in reductive measurement-consciousness, Western civilization has finally manifested the dark square of blind dogma in the “left brain” of its collective consciousness. I also believe—despite the positive and productive enlightenment born from the wholesome side of those centuries of intellectual and scientific progress—that the “right brain” of Western civilization continues to manifest a dark square of religious blind dogma that is nearly as dark as it was in the times of the Inquisition.

Hidden Arrogance
> …arrogance is a human epidemic that has become pandemic. I utterly detest arrogance, whenever and wherever I find it—especially when I find it in myself!

Arrogance and Egocentricity
> Arrogance and its manifestations are flames leaping up from the fire of unwholesome egocentricity.

> On the wholesome side of egocentricity, there is a subtle sense of responsibility that can be seen as a combination of five things . . .

Arrogance and Tradition
> Much tradition is little more than habit thought to be hallowed because hoary.

Arrogance and Traditional Christianity
> To explore this subject, it is first necessary to differentiate between counterfeit Christians and true Christians.
> [The above-mentioned] theological arrogance assigns to itself a foundation of credibility that is built mainly upon its own interpretations of the teachings uttered by a world-class spiritual master who lived in a state of consciousness that cannot begin to be fathomed, let alone embraced, by personal egos and minds that subconsciously project their own self-supporting meanings.
> I am not attempting to discredit Jesus as an authentic spiritual savior, I am not attempting to discredit the Apostles as authentic representatives of the master’s teachings, and I am not attempting to discredit the written Bible as a true scripture. I am attempting to discredit the shifty sands of dogmatic egocentricity that pose as foundational granite within the psyche.
Arrogance and Traditional Science
> Philosophically, science can be considered as just another religion. Many clues to this truth lie in its similarity to religion . . .
> In the same way that unwholesome egocentricity spawns the arrogance and ignorance that suck the spirit out of true Christians and produce counterfeit Christians—who proceed to parasite from the purity, integrity, and good name of true Christianity—unwholesome egocentricity often degenerates true scientists into semi-scientists, who parasite from the purity, integrity and good name of true science.
Egocentricity, Dogma and Finding Balance
> Wholesome egocentricity always wants to promote the field in which it operates, and it always wants to promote the collective it identifies with. This is because it naturally wants to share with others the joy of its own illuminations and the strength of its own character. But unwholesome egocentricity always needs to promote the field or collective with which it is identified; because unwholesome egocentricity finds in the approval of others the support that it senses it is missing in the false foundational security of the fixed dogma upon which it bases itself.
> The traditional North American Indians’ right brain “Way” of understanding archetypes is neither lightweight superstitious fantasy nor projected personifications from crude minds. They are dealing directly with the bedrock of Reality; they are dealing directly with the causal archetypes and principles that overarch and underlie all dynamics and manifestations in Creation. They are dealing with intangible facts.

Chapter 6: The Turning Point

> “The ‘road less traveled’ awaits our choice at every crossroads in life!”

> One late afternoon, when I was leaving [my friend’s] farm to walk back to mine, he insisted against my polite refusals that I take along a small booklet to enjoy until we met again the next day. He had enticingly flashed a page, and I had glimpsed that the booklet was a well-drawn pornographic parody of a comic strip about adults; a comic strip I usually read in the Sunday funnies. Having been raised in a sheltered environment, I had barely heard of pornography, and I didn’t want to deal with it at all. But he wore me down with his bulldog insistence and his taunts of “chicken!” So I grabbed the thing, stuffed it into my pocket, and left . . .

The Turning Point
> Turning points! Well, there is no doubt that our hearts and minds are often gripped by the phenomena of turning points; but most of us rarely contemplate them per se. Isn’t it so?
A “Potpourri” of Turning Points
Communicative Turning Points
> Left brain communication methods are formal, linear, discriminating, and definite (literal).
> Right brain communication methods are informal, spatial, unifying, and indefinite (synonymic).
Natural and Unnatural Turning Points
> After a “long” winter of typical cold and snows, I once heard an old-timer express to my mother his appreciation of spring’s arrival: “Well, I’m sure glad winter broke last week….” He used the word, “broke,” as though the seasonal change had been as objectively defined as the groan and crack of river ice. But he went on to ask my mother if she had “felt” it too.
National Turning Points
> Quick, without thinking about it—what’s the first thing that pops into your mind as a significant turning point in American history before the year 2000?
> It is interesting to hear the various types of responses you get when asking people that question.
Global Turning Points
> One of the most profound turning points in the consciousness of humankind was the discovery that the earth was round, spinning, and just another satellite under the sway of the sun. Our blown minds gasped, accepted the fact, and, several centuries later, we are still enthusiastically proud of the discovery—as we should be. The scope of the intellectual, philosophical, social, cultural, economic, scientific, and technological advancements that grew from that turning point are staggering to contemplate. Yet, I think it is safe to say, most modern individuals do not fully grasp the very basic meanings in that major historic discovery of Renaissance times—because most have used only their left brain intellect with which to perceive it!
Personal Turning Points (Conscious and Subconscious)
> The…story of my night on the mountain is a good example of a significant personal turning point that is obvious to the conscious awareness of the person experiencing it.
> The story of my boyhood choice to read the booklet of pornographic cartoons is a good example of a significant personal turning point that is unknown to the conscious awareness of the person experiencing it.
Turning Points in Collective Consciousness
> …collectives are somewhat like a spiral galaxy with a black hole in its center: Collectives are non-sentient, mindless entities made up of the creative dynamics of many individuals; they remain isolated in their self-spinning dynamic in the time and space of societal evolution; and they display their brilliant and beautiful character while slowly being swallowed up part and parcel by the dark dogma at their core.
> “Oh, now I get it,” many mainstream readers will howl, “this author is a snake oil pusher; he’s been setting us up to sell New Age culture as the great panacea for the new millennium!” Nope! Rest your minds.

Chapter 7: The Returning Point

> The term “New Age” is ambiguous, with various dictionaries implying different things with their definitions.... From 1968 until about 1998, I was personally and deeply immersed in New Age consciousness and culture.... For my own further edification, and for that of my readers, I proceed in these chapters to analytically explore New Age consciousness and culture in a modest endeavor to bring forth more clarity and balanced understanding about this sociocultural phenomenon.

The Returning Point
> As the chapters continue, there will be further explorations into the two sides of New Age consciousness and culture—its shady side, with its dogma, sophistries, lunacies, and charlatanism; and its shiny side, with its character, logic, truths, and exquisite techniques for improving the quality of life and destiny.

A “Potpourri” of Returning Points
New Age Returning Points
> Along with the misconception that New Age culture is either a temporary phenomenon or destined to remain an anomalous subculture, another popular misconception about New Age culture is that it offers new ideas and practices. It mainly recycles old ideas and practices. These can seem new for several reasons. One reason is due to the rather rapid upsurge of New Age ideas into mainstream consciousness during the Sixties and Seventies. Also, some of the “New” Age ideas and practices from ancient traditions have been updated with modern language and techniques. Further, some of those newly-presented ancient ideas and practices are harmoniously aligned with some of the theories of new science.
> The idea of holistic health is really universal, archetypal, and timeless; in that it’s simply an octave of a very basic—and very important—principle of physics and transphysics: that the quality of functional efficiency in any system is directly related to the overall quality of the integration and balance of its necessary parts!
Remedial Returning Points
> My brother Jan gave me a fine analogy for [the aforementioned] kinds of holistic needs to remedially deal with the past. He said they are like suffering an increasing loss of momentum when climbing stairs, and then discovering the problem to be that your suspenders are caught on the post below. To efficiently progress, you must return to the bottom, unhook your suspenders, and begin again. (People who refuse to return, and cop-out by casting off their suspenders, often get caught with their pants down!)
> When [the] subject of “values-clarification” comes up it can cause interesting effects in people. I have heard otherwise brilliant and poised individuals suddenly become emotional, disdainfully and impatiently dismissing the process of values-clarification…their emotional pronouncements unfortunately have the ring of personalities who harbor laziness or cowardice about their own need for psychological or spiritual growth; who value selective ignorance and denial more than they value the potential quality of their own destiny.
Communicative Returning Points
> Professional communicators who are highly left brain-predominate—such as many science writers, scholars, and literary authorities—consider certain right brain methods of communication to be a degenerative turning point in writing; a returning point toward styles of mentation and communications which they consider to be unsophisticated, lazy, childish, or low class. We are talking mainly about these right brain communication methods: alliteration, allegories, analogies, metaphors, and, of course, that wordplay that is considered to be the lowest and most dastardly by those with weak right brains—the pun.
> Right brain consciousness is always attuned to the common denominator in things; it gathers truth by naturally being perceptively receptive to the signature “vibrations” of whatever universal common denominator holds the most overarching truth about any given thing.
> Once right brain consciousness has correctly attuned itself with any octave of an archetypal truth’s archetypical signature—be that signature an energetic vibration or an ideational symbol—it has the capacity to quickly play up and down that archetype’s scale of octaves and harmonies and intuitively extract all kinds of information and understanding.
Collective Returning Points
> …holism, by definition, has to do with the existent reality of a collective whole, which is different from, and which cannot be fully understood from, the existent reality of the separated parts that compose that collective whole. But New Age perceptions and conceptions of holism could be said to be more focused on the dynamics of interrelation between those two realities. The deepest New Age focus on holistic forces and energies usually operates in three perspectives . . .
> Traditional Native Americans have always had great respect and reverence for Archetypal Creation and its providence in countless interconnected manifestations throughout all aspects of Life, Nature, and Reality. The above-mentioned New Age Ways of focus on these holistic dynamics, and recent theories of new science relative to these things, are simply manifestations of humanity’s collective right brain in operation; endeavoring to retrieve and restore valuable truths that were eclipsed by centuries of left brain tunnel vision, and which have nearly been lost to overall collective consciousness in the power and haste of Western-style progression.

Returning to a Point of Balance
> …I am convinced that there is a dynamic understanding that America’s collective consciousness must gain if America is to gain a truly integrated and balanced stance for charting its destiny through this new century and millennium; if America is to remain a true world leader on all important levels. (To be developmentally explored in later chapters.)
> …new science is progressing cautiously and slowly with its acceptance and pronouncements of new truths; as it must if it is to be true science. Meanwhile, New Age culture is rapidly increasing its acceptance and pronouncements of all manner of true and false things in the name of ancient truths. This gathering New Age breakaway is just the beginning of one more centuried pendulum swing of collective consciousness. Given the forces of duality, this swing will tend to sweep through some kind of a positive new enlightenment and continue on in time to qualify that enlightenment into a new collective character and tradition. And from there it will tend to sweep onward to eventually crystallize that tradition into some kind of new counterproductive dogma inconceivable to us now.

Chapter 8: Return to Four Corners

> Suddenly, dawn broke in a smooth and easy two- or three-second expansion of light that brightly and clearly revealed the distant mountains and everything else to the horizons! At the first movement of light, my startled mind immediately began to race in unison with its increasing brightness: “My God! I've been asleep!—no, can't be: light's still increasing!—light from a big meteor?—can't be: no green cast like the one I saw when I was a kid!—some kind of hallucination?—my God, it's broad daylight!”

> This chapter will continue to explore the main theme of the fifth chapter: our human tendency to create and subscribe to “four-cornered” realities; realities based on the subliminal “archetype of foundational security” and its reductions into various four-cornered sub-archetypes and their manifestations…This exploration will be interwoven with more explorations into New Age culture and into the likelihood of its gradual acceptance by traditional mainstream society.

The Basics of New Age Consciousness and Culture
> Like counterfeit Christians and semi-scientists, [the above-mentioned] mediocre majority of New Agers resonates somewhat with the deeper understanding held by their core group, but they filter real truths through an eager and impatient egocentricity. This creates distorted interpretations and their consequent manifestations into varieties of assumptive fanaticism and lock-step dogma.
> As the chapters unfold, there will be more exploration of the differences existing between this majority of shallow New Agers and the minority of deep New Agers who compose the core group. But for now, what do most people in the general public consider to be the identifying hallmarks associated with New Age culture, as seen in its practices and beliefs? And what are some common misconceptions about these? The following very basic overview will touch on these things, and it will serve to establish contexts for proceeding materials.

New Age Practices
> For this basic overview, New Age practices can be informally divided into these three generalized categories: Holistic Health Practices, “Psychic” Practices and Spiritual Practices.
> Of the various words pertaining to New Age culture, “psychic” is probably the best known one, but it is the one that spawns the most misconceptions.
New Age Beliefs
> In certain respects we could call the superconscious mind the “holistic mind”; an overarching mind in which subconsciousness, semiconsciousness, and normal waking consciousness are little more than participating players. Does it exist?
> …to close this very basic overview, indulge me to create a descriptive term that will name the overruling dynamic that combines the three ideological dynamics of New Age consciousness and culture…For continuing exploration in these pages…I cautiously and modestly suggest: “Transcommunionism.”

Transcommunionism
> …there are constructive and productive layers of meaning to be explored in the term “transcommunionism”; layers which can help us to more fully understand the dynamics functioning within the shiny, wholesome side of New Age consciousness and culture. Let us approach these things with an open mind and a balanced attitude.
> Transcommunion: In a whole, the state and dynamics of all intangible and tangible components being in continuous intimate interrelationship by means of archetypal resonance, among themselves and with the whole; especially concerning the whole of Creation.

New Age Claims and Science
Atomic Realities
> Many commentators—not all of them New Agers—have been asserting that humankind is in a modern Renaissance, that the collective consciousness of global humanity is entering a new phase of perceptual and conceptual abilities; evolving a new collective reality that will be as stunningly different as the one evolved when we discovered that our earth was round and it wasn’t the all-in-all center of the universe.
Holistic Realities
> The scientists [who dismiss the idea of synchronicity] are claiming that anyone can find all kinds of meanings and messages in anything by using a little bit of right brain spin. Transcommunionists are claiming that anyone who habitually peers through the fragmenting, linear grid-work of left brain mentation is blinding their own vision of nonlinear connections in Holistic Creation. Could they both be right?
> …for forty years I have enthusiastically, deeply, and with an open mind, delved into the realms of psychology, metaphysics, and mysticism. But, when it comes to accepting questionable experiences into my own consciousness, I would always rather err on the side of skepticism than err on the side of belief.

Return to the Archetype of Foundational Security
> When we feel threatened by new information from the constantly-evolving world around us, we tend to retreat into the “four walls” of our inner home; that zone of reality wherein feelings of security and comfort are sure to be found by indulging in our habitual thought-routines (routines that have been created as manifestations of our intellectual, psychological, and philosophical tastes). And because these little cubicle realities of ours do provide our egos with a sense of grounding and safety, most of us tend to snarl and snap like watchdogs to protect them from any incursions by new information that might require us to remodel them in any way.

Chapter 9: Return to the Measure of Man

> In this chapter and the following ones, we will continue to explore the dynamics within [the differing realities of left brain- and right brain-predominant individuals and collectives.]

> In the realm of science, semi-scientists are the throbbing majority—at least among the public commentators who claim to speak for science. With their narrow-minded biases and their arrogant assertions of dismissive opinion, they misrepresent their professional field and their colleagues as well, thereby sabotaging the good character of science.

> They…have their counterparts in New Age consciousness and culture. I…call them “sidetrack-psychics”: they have gotten themselves onto a sidetrack of the real thing, and they sidetrack sincere seekers and investigators with their blasé, laid-back arrogance and their cavalier attitude that anything “channeled” has somehow been universally validated as gravimetric gospel.

Garbage and Gold in the Human Psyche

New Age Garbage and New Age Gold
> …while I am sure that my habitual tendency toward skepticism must have sometimes prevented me from authentic, positive experiences in transcendental realms, I can see in retrospect that I was more often saved from falling prey to…delusive, negative experiences….Toward gaining more understanding of these things, a few illustrating stories and comments follow . . .
> This brings us to the attempts of those in Western mainstream consciousness and culture to use their left brain approaches to measure the worth of claims coming from right brain-predominant New Age consciousness and culture. Those particular attempts are part of an overall sincere desire by mainstream individuals and collectives to chart a better world destiny by founding their vision upon left brain techniques of perception, conception, attitudes, and practices—techniques that are chiefly born of measurement-consciousness.
Mainstream Garbage and Mainstream Gold
> How can one half of human awareness—which is necessarily born from and dependent upon the objective, material, logical, and mathematical realms—begin to accurately investigate and evaluate its polar opposite—which is necessarily born from and dependent upon a realm that is purely subjective, non-physical, non-logical, and non-mathematical? And how then could either half be expected to attain a workable and communicable understanding of the whole?
> Refinement is refinement, whether or not that happens to be of the left brain material and scientific type. Many ancient cultures enjoyed refinement of right brain consciousness. Academic anthropology and archaeology depend almost wholly upon the accumulation of materially-based intellectual knowledge and the synthesis of these data into a truly narrow and shallow understanding of the consciousness underlying these cultures. That kind of precursory level of understanding cannot accurately perceive or evaluate the subtle levels of the thinking, language, art, and transphysical techniques that were everyday elements in the cultures of many of these ancient peoples.
> …two things occurred rather simultaneously; which were allegorically like fitting a jet engine on each wing of the old single-motor “airplane” of America’s technological and intellectual progress—plastics and the television appeared on the scene! Nothing would ever be the same. Not only were intellectual and technological consciousness boosted to new heights and speeds, materially-related social consciousness began to grow rapidly.

Returning to the True Measure of Man
> I was attending a weekend self-improvement workshop, and the issue of human sexuality was on the table. Participants were communicating their own ideas and experiences that might be helpful in some way to the others. A young man aspiring to priesthood, and about to graduate from seminary, unabashedly shared that he was able to effectively deal with the pressures of celibacy by masturbating. In the Hindu spiritual science of yoga, “celibacy” basically means attitudes and practices of transmuting the potency of any sexual desire into some kind of constructive, productive manifestation above the level of sensory gratification. The Western view of celibacy has become quite different; if it ever was as exacting as the Eastern view.
> If we are afraid to venture into our own individual and collective psyches, how are we to rationally evaluate the possibilities hidden within the deeper levels of our own psyches…how are we individuals and collectives going to find enough basic depth to gain a workable understanding of, and therefore a good quality control of, those basic intangibles—such as good character—that are vital to a truly higher civilization and destiny?
> For certain reasons (which will be explored in the next chapter), the conservative element of our American mainstream fears the realm of the psyche more so than the liberal element. Liberals often enjoy the exciting dangers of experimentally wading into the shallow end of the psyche—for them it is much like “extreme sports”; getting the immediate rewards from experiencing the challenges and risks of practicing and improving skills by their own repeated experiments. Conservatives prefer to staidly remain on the shore and trust that their strict adherence to traditional values will compound into rewards that are more long term. While either [approach] can help to maintain and improve the intangible qualities of a higher civilization, there is, as always, a downside to every coin.

Chapter 10: Return to the Great Divide

> …dualistic/relativistic dynamics permeate and influence every aspect of intangible and tangible Creation, including every aspect of our own external and internal experiences of Life, Nature, and Reality. The fact is inescapable.

> The atmospheres of our own ideologies distort our vision of anything that is separate from them—especially if that separate thing happens to be an ideology that is in conflict with our own. As scientists sent the Hubble telescope outside of Earth’s atmosphere to gain a clear view of the rest of the visible universe, our own vision must somehow escape the psychological gravity and ideological distortions that result from taking our own views too seriously!

Psychological and Cosmological Archetypes
> For the best understanding of this subject, we need to look at the differences between the way that students and analysts usually perceive and conceive of archetypes (via the teachings of Jung and Campbell) and the way that archetypes are perceived and conceived in the deepest teachings of various ancient cultures; such as those of China, India, and the North American Indians, to mention a few.
> Intangible archetypes are much like liquid mercury. When you try to pin down a blob of liquid mercury with your finger, it reductively breaks into little drops and droplets of its original entirety; when you try to pin down an archetype by labeling it with an understood word to satisfy the left brain, it breaks up in the mind into smaller and oblique representations of its original idea and dynamics.
Yang-Yin, the Archetype of Duality
> Yang-Yin is a term for what we could call “Primordial Duality,” or the first dual archetypes, which were born from the incomprehensibly-singular Primordial Source. And it is from this Primordial Duality of Yang-Yin that all of the lesser archetypes and their opposing duals were reductively born.
> I am convinced that to gain the deepest understanding of cosmological archetypes, with all their multidimensional dynamics and manifestations, we would do well to allow them to remain mostly abstract and mysterious. This is not an intellectual cop-out, and this is not tossing the keys to shamanism and mysticism; this is a functional technique for capturing the interest of the right brain and calling upon its genius to bring to us deeper and broader comprehension of the holistic truths embodied in archetypal realities.
> The true value from our explorations of cosmological archetypes is not in gaining a little intellectual understanding about how they [function] throughout the many octaves of Creation; the value is in gaining some workable understanding of how they function in our personal and collective psyches to affect our habitual perceptions, conceptions, attitudes, and behaviors. The main purpose of these last two sections has been to cultivate that understanding.
Duality, Relationship Dynamics, and Balance
> Much like one end of two opposing magnetic poles, we usually find ourselves somehow drawn into the fields of those individuals and collectives whose views are opposite to our own. Just when it seems that we are beginning to gain a little peace of mind and personal flow in our lives, there they are—a visiting family member, a new neighbor, a new boss or coworker, a voice on the car radio, or one of the hundreds of flapping faces that haunt our television screens!
> Archetypal Creation is continually offering to us important evolutionary lessons through our own personal experiences in Life, Nature, and Reality. When I was in the sixth grade, I was given a direct and powerful lesson about these things we have been discussing; but I did not really recognize that lesson until just a few years ago.
> These are strange and confusing times, and these modern circumstances…call me to focus the following section on two specific manifestations of Yang-Yin that have always operated dynamically in the world of human beings: sexual polarities and political polarities.
Duality, Dogma, and Darwinian Dynamics
> No exploration of sexual and political dualities would be complete without another look at the great gross and gaudy presidential sex/impeachment scandal of 1998—America’s body-noise at the table of global society! Don’t worry, I’m not going to exhume that carcass and drag it through the streets in a cloud of flies. Instead of reexamining all the nasty details of the drama, a rough outline should set the stage for the things we will be exploring next.
Republican as Yang; Democrat as Yin
> Paradoxically, conservative Republicans have traditionally come to be known as America’s political “Right,” while they are actually the highly left brain or Yang collective; and liberal Democrats have traditionally come to be known as America’s political “Left,” while they are actually the highly right brain or Yin collective.
Yang-Yin and Sexual Dynamics in our Psyches
> In context to this discussion, and very basically: Yang is a cosmological force of Creation that is executive and activating, and Yin is a cosmological force that is “serviceful” (fulfilled by being of service) and gestating. These interrelating dynamics are easily recognized in the natural male and female dynamics of biological creation in humans: The male carries sperm, which is restlessly active on its own, and which is a potent, activating seed; and he makes executive decisions about when, where, or if, he wants to project those seeds for the purpose of procreating aspects of himself. The female who wants to create aspects of herself becomes biologically serviceful to the executive idea of the male who has somehow stimulated wholesome receptivity within her, and with full reception of his seed, she fulfills in gestation and birth the desires of both (by giving to his idea and his activating spark of creative energy her own immense creative energies and her own potent reservoirs of constructive, productive substances).
Yang-Yin and American Feminism
> Cosmological Yang moves by its own purpose and will; Cosmological Yin remains motionless until it responds in some way to that purpose and will, then it serves mainly to provide the integrity and substance within which Yang’s purpose and will can then fully manifest. This pure and natural compliment between opposites resonates in the higher octaves of the human psyche; and within those octaves, Yin not only provides integrity for Yang, she provides inspiration as well. In the lower or basic psyche this power of inspiration can manifest itself as wholesome Yin inspiring the wholesome motives and motions of Yang (such as delicate beauty inspiring courtly action, and vulnerable integrity inspiring protective action). Or that same high Yin can be distorted in the lower psyche and therefore be manifested as unwholesome Yin provoking the unwholesome motives and motions of Yang (such as lewd sensuality provoking invasive desire, and immoderate openness provoking wanton greed).
> True feminism is core feminism; it is the evolutionary blossoming-movement of Yin, or the pure archetypal feminine, within individual and collective psyches. But true feminism is being corrupted.
The Yin Rennaisance and New Millennium Awakenings
> The whole world—natural, social, political, economic—is groaning and staggering under [the] hot and hasty Yang in the lower octaves of collective humanity’s psyche. The powerful predominance of greed, obsessive competitiveness, and impatience—along with constant frenetic attempts to force timing or to manipulate the present to guarantee selfish futures—is accelerating humanity toward certain eventual tragedy from gross imbalance. And all of these unwholesome Yang attitudes and actions are distortions or perversions in the lower psyche of pure and natural Yang resonating in the higher octaves of the psyche . . .
> …how can Yin’s ability…to be in integrity…heal that imbalance without actually slowing down wholesome progress? Here are two little stories of personal learning that might help to illustrate the answer to that . . .
Yin Power and Darwinism
> What is Yin power? What is true feminine power? Perhaps the best approach to answering these questions would be to ask: “Who has historically demonstrated true and significant Yin power?
> We Westerners are in a headstrong, headlong rush to get more and more and to get it quicker and quicker, and these dynamics are permeated with a feverish and nearly-desperate “must-win-at-all-costs” attitude. These attitudes and actions continue to more darkly blind us to our own Yin—or to our own right brain faculties of consciousness—which could bring to us more of what we want, bring it more efficiently, and bring it more permanently.
> All of the overblown Yang dynamics that have been described in this chapter as detrimental to the ongoing evolution of the Western psyche could be summed up as the “Adam Smith” syndrome—a majority mindset clinging to an old millennium ideology that is becoming increasingly outdated in the dawning of New Millennium awakenings. The “Adam Smith” syndrome is an unwholesome crystallized dogma in the collective Western psyche; a quintessential Yang/left brain imbalance that in the evolutionary forces of New Millennium awakenings is destined to die. Before lightly exploring it, a few words on the derivation of the syndrome’s name . . .

Chapter 11: Return to the Great Circle

> As we have explored left brain consciousness from many different angles throughout this book, it should by now be clear that left brain consciousness is limited to the accurate and inaccurate rationale it can put together within the confines of its own self-created reality-box; which is constructed of these good and necessary human powers: sensory perception of the objective material realm (including perception gained through technological extensions of the senses); logic and reason; sequential linearity (through which logic and reason proceed to their conclusions, for example); discriminative particularity; basic mathematical measurement; and mechanistic linearity (through which consciousness can use the senses, their technological extensions, mathematics, and sequential linearity to recognize and create direct connections between know objects and dynamics within Creation).
Wholeness, Wholesomeness, Holistic, and Holy
> Do we, as individuals and cultures, want a complete life? Do we want total actualization of our dreamed-of destinies? Are we then willing to wisely open ourselves to the whole Truth about the Creation in which we live? And are we then courageous enough to fully explore the depths of our own inner and outer potentials? I am asking if we really want those things down deep, and if we are actually willing and courageous enough to seek them with sincerity and commitment. I think that even highly-unbalanced left brain intellectuals would venture a sincere “yes” to those questions.
Matter and Nuclear Energy; Body and Psyche
> Those [aforementioned] facts about useful and accessible energies existing apart from our physical bodies which use them are known and accepted. But perhaps the most difficult idea for traditional Western minds to grasp and accept is the idea of useful and accessible energies, and their vibrations, probably existing beyond those already recognized and measured by modern science—even though science continues to find or theorize increasingly-subtle realms and their energies.
Dynamic Realities: Material, Nuclear, Psychic, Holistic
> [Traditional thinkers] do not need to be so taken aback by those unusual ideas just mentioned above; because those highly-subtle and highly-complex elements of human holism are not really all that separate from our own personally-experienced realities and the scientifically-accepted realities of the day—those holistic elements are just so subtly merged with those traditional realities that they are obscure to us.
> Unfortunately, too many people tend to think that the only choice about new technology and ancient techniques is to align with one and malign the other.
> Evolving New Millennium realities will rest upon a good workable understanding of the nonlinear connections where separate realms and realities interfacially merge, and they will also rest upon an understanding of the non-mechanical, organic nature of the dynamic interrelationships and interactions within those twilight zones.
Holistic Circles and Holy Men
> …we have been using ideas and words related mainly to North American Indian cosmology to illustrate the deeper and broader ranges of holism, as known mainly from a right brain mystical perspective. This holistic cosmology can be translated into the words and ideas of a left brain scientific perspective that honors both traditional physics and exotic string theory.
> …we are now talking about the true underlying meaning of mysticism, in its chief definition as communion with the divine; and we are simultaneously talking about the deepest dynamics of holism—because authentic holy men and women of ancient and modern times have always understood mysticism and holism to be the same . . .
> She stood in the stream of the rising wind and fell rapt with the expansion that was taking place within her. As she continued to gaze out over the expanse of the panorama, she lost awareness of the firm touch of the earth beneath her feet, and of the gentle touch of fireweed blossoms tapping against her calves. She lost awareness of the cool air moving against her skin, and of the windblown wisps of hair tickling her face. She lost awareness of the murmuring sound of the wind in the pines, and of the distant calls of a raven. She relaxed her vision and let it ride with the shimmering ripples of grass that raced with the warming winds across the plain, and her mind rode the moving prairie to a place of deep and easy peace within. Suspended in a timeless moment there, she gazed into the golden glint of the river and heard the sound of her name in a song that was and wasn’t the wind.
> “Some find their joy and hold their joy in many little pieces, like the quail pecks here and there; and some find and hold it in long breaths, like the wind rises and falls. Some find and hold it like the days or the moons or the seasons come and go. And some are close to their joy every moment, but have not found a way to touch it—like the yearning brave who has not yet won permission from the maiden he loves.

Chapter 12: Return to the Beginning

Yang/Left Brain and Yin/Right Brain—Balance, Efficiency, and Productivity
> Left brain-predominant individuals and collectives are decidedly Yang, and they naturally tend toward assertive and aggressive forms of self-expression; right brain-predominant entities are decidedly Yin, and they naturally tend toward passive and harmonizing forms of self-expression.

Styles of Thinking and Communicating for Avoiding Truth
> It is wise to bear in mind that almost all types of individuals and collectives are basically good people who are sincerely attempting to share with others the various positive things they have come to understand or have experienced through following their own ideologies. But ego-attachment to the dogma lying beneath the good character in every ideology is always present to some degree in us humans, and therein destructive and counterproductive arrogance and ignorance simmer and lie in wait.
Right Attitude, Effective Technique, and Balance
> … the dynamics of our own positive character and the dynamics of our own negative dogma are interfacially merged within our psyches; so it requires a very delicate operation to remove our dogma without damaging our character. (As someone once said, in effect, you must be very balanced in your procedures if you are attempting to remodel your boat while at sea.) So how can we effectively deal with these challenges; how can we find the safe balance while proceeding to cleanse our characters of the soul-stifling dogma and the arrogance and ignorance that parasite from the quality of our lives and destinies?
Yin/Right Brain Consciousness—The Most Potent Force for Good
> Eastern martial arts masters use the Yin power of flow to gain and maintain balance and stillness in both their outer and inner experiences. A conscious and continuous flow of “chi” (universal life energy) within their bodies simultaneously grounds their physical balance and inspires instinctive and intuitive responses and flexibility. This flow allows them to manifest an amazing state: they remain centered in an inner stillness, even in the heights of a “fast and furious” physical battle! (Think of it—the psychic flow of a subtle, intangible Yin aspect of universal life force inspires, gives integrity to, and governs the palpable, surging Yang force that is willfully and powerfully operating the body!)

Western Resistance to Emerging Holistic Realities
> The national manifestations that have come out of our uniquely-American style of Yang/left brain-imbalance for over two centuries have developed a tangible life of their own. Much like an old-fashioned heavy grindstone, whose powerful momentum is maintained with very little will and energy on the part of the person pumping its treadle, the weighty combination of our industrial, technological, commercial, and economic dynamics relentlessly moves forward with no sturdy braking system with which to moderate it. Our relatively-intangible political and social systems are so intertwined with that tangible momentum, and so subordinated to it, that those systems have become rather useless for providing any significant moderating effect. And worse, our intangible mainstream cultural mindset has become more like a cult mind set on subserviently following its headstrong and momentous Yang leader to whatever end. Because these intangible and tangible dynamics are now a concretized dogma hidden deep in the character of the American-led West, it will not be easy to accept the idea of healing that imbalance in our mass mindset with ancient knowledge having to do with transcendental Yin power.
> We are all fooling ourselves if we honestly believe that we can continue forward into this new century and millennium with our serious imbalance of heavy Yang/left brain consciousness and not eventually bring upon ourselves serious damage or destruction. The more we collectively resist the humble call of our own tremendous Yin powers, the more we risk creating events and conditions that could set us back for decades—even a century!

Holism, an Intrinsic Dynamic of “Trans-quantum” Realities
> In our present New Renaissance, which is steadily unfolding and organizing New Millennium realities, and which is increasingly calling for better balances in all human affairs, traditional North American Indian wisdom is a rich and important resource for all of us. These people carried an integrated and balanced understanding of cosmic principles and of how those principles dynamically affect our everyday lives and destinies.
> The early North American Indians consciously lived their lives within a kind of vibratory trans-quantum ecology—a dynamic and practical holism that simultaneously connected them to the transcendental and the mundane; connected them through extremely-subtle trans-quantum dynamics that interconnect and interrelate all things within a unified sea of Creation.

Journey to Where—Holistic Unification or Divisional Fragmentation
> Down through the centuries many prophecies emerged pointing to a specific time of major transition for humanity; a profound evolutionary transition from one rung of all-around understanding and experience to that of a higher rung.

Signs of the Times
> The world is undergoing major transition, and that can readily be seen by anyone who does not have investments in ignoring the facts.
Dynamics of the Times
> The unpredictable and often-unpreventable eruptions of ruthless terrorism are, in principle, just one manifestation (albeit a profound one) of an overall modern dynamic; a problematic one that has accidentally been created as a side effect of a century or so of our unbalanced and rapidly-progressing intellectual, scientific, industrial, and technological evolution. It will not be easy to gain a workable understanding of this subtle, intangible, and negative dynamic—which has insidiously grown like a tumor on the back of our positive Yang/left brain-predominant Western Ways—so we must explore it with patience and out-of-the-box thinking.
> …we are all being pressured to move ourselves faster and faster throughout our concrete infrastructures, throughout our wired and wireless electromagnetic infrastructures, and throughout the inner infrastructures of our brains’ neuro-pathways.
Holism/Unity; Division/Diversity
> Only when we [Westerners] bring into balance our own habitual styles of mentation and communication, only when we compliment our own high Yang/left brain consciousness and capacities with commensurate Yin/right brain consciousness and capacities, will we be appropriately equipped to execute refined diplomacy with, and fully contribute toward secure détente with, nations whose centuried consciousness and cultures have always been Yin/right brain-predominant.
> In this new century and dawning millennium, in this season of inevitable movement toward globalization, the nations who understand how to more fully merge with others in a wholesome and constructive, productive relationship will be the ones who evolve into the role of world leaders. No modern nation, including America, is guaranteed that role by its present greatness of economy or military might, by its intellectual and scientific achievements, by its sincere heart, or by any type of “Manifest Destiny” believed to have been assigned to it by the favor of its God-of-choice.
Opting Out and Opting In
> Because of [the principles explored earlier], it is safe to posit that the nations who eventually rise like cream to the top of New Millennium leadership will be those nations whose citizens opt into gaining the deepest understanding of, and appreciation for, all aspects of outer and inner holistic environmental integrity; and whose citizens bring that understanding into intention, will, and manifestation.

Return to the Beginning

Environmental Humanity
> [The ideas explored in foregoing materials] probably sound crazy to most people in our modern Western world; but we should not be so quick to dismiss such concepts. “Network science” (one of our newest sciences), which is bringing breakthroughs in many fields through new understanding of how seemingly disparate things are closely connected through “hubs,” is already laying the foundation for higher scientific understanding of subtle holistic dynamics that many ancient cultures have understood, and which we have been exploring in this book.

Psychophysiological Humanity
> Our psychophysiological selves are basically a sum of our inner psychological and organic environments. Our inner psychological environments mainly consist of our habitual systems of thought, feeling, and emotion; and our inner organic environments consist of the summed state and dynamics of all of our various physiological systems (nervous, digestive, pulmonary, metabolic, etc.). And as these inner psychological and physiological environments of ours intimately interrelate and interact with one another, they simultaneously interrelate and interact with our outer natural environments in various indirect and direct, intangible and tangible, subliminal and conscious ways.
Psychospiritual Humanity
> Carl Jung said, in essence, that no mental patients gained psychological health without somehow integrating some aspect of spirituality into their healing process. That is not at all a religious statement; it is a holistic statement.
> …most of the subtle qualitative dynamics of the psyche are far beyond the boundaries of physics. Therefore, they are metaphysical or transphysical by definition. While many dynamics in the human psyche can easily be considered as “metaphysical,” where does “spiritual” fit into the dynamics of our psyches?
Psychospiritual Humanity and National Integration (Security)
> Before we can create right courses and compromises to significantly heal deterioration in American character, we must first resolve the issue of what America’s Founders really meant by “separation of church and state.” A few comments about this challenge follow, and they are meant simply as a contribution to the many arguments, debates, discussions, and brain-storming sessions aimed at resolving it.
Return to Integrity
> First of all, and allegorically, the potentiality of collective consciousness is much like a pool of crystal-clear water, and individual consciousness is much like a person carrying two vessels of some size—one filled with ink and the other filled with ink eradicator. As individuals enter the pool and immerse themselves, the liquids in their vessels flow outwardly in a permeating dynamic and—according to the size of their vessels of darkening or clearing agents—add to darkness or to clarity in the pool. Thus, our dual natures of negative and positive tendencies and their manifestations contribute to the overall quality of consciousness in the various collectives to which we belong.
Return to an Authentic Self
> All of the various things that we may daily experience within our own psyches are experiences of ongoing dynamic reverberations of ambient cosmological principles that eons ago created human bodies, brains, and psyches; created them through reductive “condensations” of archetypal qualities and archetypical signatures of differentiation.
> We all sense that we have higher powers and capabilities hiding somewhere deep within our own psyches; and we all sense that our own free choice and free will are the keys to uncovering them and awakening them into forces for improving the richness of our daily experiences and the quality of our evolving destinies.

the Great Circle Book Excerpts

This journey is intended to be an adventurous quest for finding ideas and directions; for blazing trails into the territories of dreams, decisions, and destinies; and for learning from opportunities ignored and grasped along the courses of our own lifetime journeys.